toastiireefs

At first glance i thought it was this (if i am ID ing the right coral) http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=597+321+429&pcatid=429 though on second glance i think it is a "donut coral"

I used to have a herd of these guys!!! i love tem LOADS i hatched brine every day and had a copepod culture going

Are you sure you mean 5ppm and not 0.5? 5ppm is INCREDIBLY dangerous levels to have your ammonia at-- i mean its flat out toxic to your fish. 0.5 on the other hand, while not ideal is way more manageable. 5 is like you had freshly made water and then just dropped decaying food in it and waited. If you have fresh SW you need to use an ammonia binder or have more frequent water changes-- that can spike super quick.

In the future is this happens. I actually do not know what would be best-- but my thoughts would be against a rapid change in pH-- bring it down slow? People may disagree with me on this. But when I was doing research on how pH effects scallop larvae (very different to this) if my air lines shut off and the pH spiked and i turned my airline on the next day and it went back down rapidly to 7.5 (on purpose) everything would die. And that wasnt because of the initial spike -- it may have been-- but the quick changes are really harmful stresses animals out. Older animals can handle it a lot better than larvae though!

Well I do not know who that is! But I am a marine biologist (with almost a M.S.) So I hope I have learned something over the years And on that note. EVERYTHING needs phosphate in their life. w/o phosphate our bodies could do NOTHING. So we NEED phosphate or need to provide it some how in food for our animals because even photosynthesizers need ATP also known as Adenosine triphosphate! Yea we shouldn't go over board but thats a side note

I am very fascinated by everything you are writing -- and i love your humor! (It reminds me of my dad's!). What combination of foods do you feed? You catch your own food? I live a couple miles from the beach and have access to a lot of freshly dead seafood. I recently blended some shrimp heads with some shrimp meat and my fish seem to really love that-- though I am sure it is super nutrient rich. I have been playing with the idea of making my own blend of seafood. Clams were at the top of my list. And grass feeder shrimp that I can catch at the marsh. Unfortunately my tank is only a 30 gal and and my fish are small and I am not sure they can handle the size of the shrimp as live. In a fix last night I went out and bought some reef pellets -- I am regretting that a bit-- clowns were OKAY with it, the cardinal was having nothing to do with them. I was VERY disturbed by all the soy /wheat meal that was in the pellet-- I know we feed that to the fishes we eat... but we kill those fishes in the end. But I also have access to fresh and fresh filtered (gets all the algae and suspended solids out) seawater. I have used some of that but I go back and forth between mixing my own salt and running to the beach tap to get ocean water. I have always wondered if it was a benefit or a harm to introduce natural organisms back into my tank.

Well depending on what the limiting factor/nutrient is in your tank- trace elements CAN actually fuel crazy growth. In MOST systems phosphate is the limiting nutrient which is why we try to keep it down. It doesnt matter how many nitrates you have as long as there isn't enough phosphate. same way you can have 100 slices of bread and only 10 slices of ham, doesnt matter how much bread you have, you are only making 10 sandwiches. So if your phosphate and nitrates were not what was limiting growth (unlikely) then trace elements CAN cause growth. Speciifcally silica. but thats all theoretical

Yea I just realized that today :/ oops! I was aiming for the 33ppt range but I am gonna move it back up (aka not top off) to 35ppt. AND I finally get my refractometer back today. It has been home in DC for a while and my friend just brought it back for me WOOOO no more flicking the plastic hydrometer to get the bubbles off the meter.

I think my placement of my powerhead is too high in the tank-- is there an optimal location or just what ever works best for each individual aqurium?

Hi, Awesome work! I am also working on a HOB refugium. So far I have a bit too much flow happening through the chamber-- so all the pods got washed out into the tank already. I will post pictures of how I finish modifying it once I get it all together in my thread! I have sand, rock and macro algae in the fuge at the moment-- and hopefully have some pods left. :/ if not I will have to make another trip to get some to reseed the tank.

I have a good few shelf pieces of rock in my tank now. I might take some rock out of my aquarium and simplify everything a bit more. I do not know how smart detrimental it would be if I actually rearranged everything in the tank now that I have livestock and everything. ... I have a big water change this weekend? Good excuse to move things around.

So I am definitely inspired. I want to rearrange all my rock now!

I am seeing coralline pop up around my tank on the other rocks now that I have given it a closer look!

Help? My coralline algae is dying. I think it is being eaten by the astrea stars. I have 2-3 of them in the tank-- but I can not always find them- they pretty much exclusively live on the only rock with coralline My other corals are doing great. I also just scraped some coralline off a couple snails and off that rock to seed the rest of the tank... (how much do I need to scrape off??) hopefully it will start to grow elsewhere. My first step is to remove those stars i think.. :/ The other issue is that my s.g. was a bit high 1.026 so I am fixing that currently as well. Hadn't topped off :/

I had some hair algae starting to grow in my tank. I nipped the problem in the bud and got an emerald crab. i had one in an older tank that had a huge algae problem and didn't seem to make too much of a difference. but MAN this crab went to WORK on my algae and there is VERY limited amounts left at the moment.

Thanks! I picked up a little emerald crab today and a hammer coral... which i swear is a frogspawn... curse of common names? (what my LFS recommened). I will definitely be careful of where I place it. It is definitely adding some nice color to my tank Most of my rock was dead so its all white with one piece of purple live rock. I want my coralline to spread !!

Can a moderator move this to general discussion? since this is no longer less than 20 gallons

Sorry I have been MIA Since posting I have everything set up and cycled. I have been trying to get into the local aquarium group (since I have moved to NC) but there are not as many people ther.e My university gives away high quality filtered seawater.-- which they use in their own saltwater aquariums. Many of the local people also use it for their SW tanks. I am using a CPR bakpak as my skimmer-- rated for a 65 gallon. Still trying to get used to adjusting it so it skims the way I want it to. I have a Koralia 425 in there as well. That zoa was a hitchhiker on my piece of live rock. -- and it lived through the whole cycling process!! Candy Canes I got off a local person- they were looking a bit rough when I got them. Most seemed to have perked up a bit post fragging. I have a small amount of hair algae but it is not quite out of control. I am going to build my refugium soon. My nitrates are slightly higher than I would like - though they around 5ppm. - hoping the refugium will help with the nitrates. I am currently looking for a nice coral for my clowns to host in since they are currently tucking themselves in a corner against the glass. I have the current orbit marine lights which I like a lot! I hope they work out in the long run. Not planning on any high intensity light corals. Long term: planning to build a mini magnetic frag rack for the back of my tanks. (do not know if this is necessary yet.) But in my head its a good idea. Livestock in there: 2 clowns 1 pajama cardinal snails. a few astrea hitchhikers. a couple night anemones (someone told me they were ball anemones). They look pretty cool and only come out at night. That is it for now!

So I am considering the difference between buying an RO system, Stealing DI water from my university (or just High Quality saltwater for that matter), and using a refillable bottle service like primo. I have a 30 gallon tank now- no longer a 20. and to fill it will cost 15$, then water changes- over time this cost will not be very high. like 5$/ water change. (if i use a refillable service which is about 40-50 cents/gallon). OR I can buy a small RO system. 50 gpd. which is roughly 60$ (on sale currently). I would need to fill, and then do 9 ten gallon water changes to reconcile the cost- which is very conceivable. The only thing I worry about is the installation-- because I live in a rented apartment. Is installation something I can do myself or have to hire someone to do? OR. I can just take jugs to my university marine science center and hope no one asks any questions about why I am taking seawater home.

Yea, since I have always been a student with my Saltwater aquariums I walk the line of trying to make the right decision and trying not to go into further debt!. There are some aqua c skimmers and CPR bak paks that I am looking at on ebay Sara

Sounds good to me! Yup, i have come to my senses and am going to try and get rid of that tank to a terrarium user Any reasonably priced skimmers that will do the job? http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=24108 I am looking at a 30 gallon tank now which is bordering the range of nano i believe. but I do not think that skimmer will be powerful enough for a 30 because it says up to 24 gallons. Bummer. hmmm. I have spent days looking at aquarium equipment to purchase and not writing the paper i need to be writing.

Thanks for the advice- I have already patched the tank up (did that a while ago!) and it definitely holds water. But I am considering getting one off craigslist or petco! There is a 30gal with the same footprint for $30. Seems worth it to me to not have water all over the floor. The HOB filter- i was going to take out all the filter stuff and fill it with refugium mud and macro algae and pods. (havent decided on that yet either). Having a 30 gal will also give a little bit more flexibility with what I can put in the tank.

I have definitely considered getting a new aquarium. So that is on my radar of something to do. It has been 5 years since i have had an aquarium so trying to remember everything. Here are my thoughts for the tank: Currently planning on not having a sump-- may have a HOB "filter" refugium though. Live rock, sand normal stuff (powerheads, heaters, testing equip etc)). Thinking of a pair of clowns and an anemone, and then a variety of soft corals/ polyps etc. May try my hand at a couple hard corals if everything is going well. a pair of shrimp. If it isn't too much to handle a goby. What lights would be sufficient to grow hard corals on this size of a tank. I was recommended a coral life LED fixture (i think). Are LEDs sufficient to grow corals or would I need HOT5s-- which is what I had on my 45. Final question Skimmer, yes or no? What are some HOB skimmer options? (Any favorites?)

I really appreciate this thread! I have volunteered at the zoo for many years and have great friends there. I would not be where I am today without that place and it still breaks my heart to know it is not there anymore. I am glad this exhibit touched so many lives and taught many people about the importance of the ocean!